Tending the Fire
by Steph-Schell
Summary: "I reward loyalty with loyalty. You've been loyal to me so I'll be loyal to you. That means no leaving." This is both Fluffy and INCEST. If either of these squicks you, leave now. Ye be warned!


**A/N: **I have nothing to say except the characters drove me to it. Enjoy

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Miles slowly came awake to the sounds of a fire being kindled back to life. The first thing he saw the blinding light of the sun creeping up on the horizon. After he'd oriented himself from that, he found Charlie bent over the warm ashes of their fire clad only in his shirt which fell to her mid-calf. She turned to him with a smile. "Nora catches you in that and I am going to catch hell," Miles stated.

Charlie laughed. "I was cold and it was warm," she replied, impish smile teasing around her lips.

"Doesn't mean I won't still catch hell." Miles frowned. "Why are you wearing my shirt anyway? Where are your clothes?"

"Over there," she gestured. "But this smelled like you."

"Now that I will certainly catch hell for."

"So I won't tell her that's why I picked it up."

"_Or _you could just take it off and we won't have this problem."

Charlie crawled up his legs until she was straddling his hips. With him half lying down, they were eye to eye. "You just want to get me naked," she accused playfully, impish smile still firmly in place.

"I did that last night," he reminded her, kissing her gently. "What are you doing up this early anyway?"

"Got woken up by animal sounds. Too bad too. I was having a good dream."

Miles grinned cockily. "Yeah? What about?"

"About you and me." Miles' grin grew even wider. "We were waking up together."

Miles' expression turned regretful. "That's never going to happen," he reminded her softly. He hated to pull her out of her dream world but one of them had to be a realist.

Charlie shook her head. "This was after we saved Danny," she explained.

"Oh really?"

Charlie looked into the distance. "Yeah, we had settled down on a farm of our own. It was some way out village where no one knew us except Danny." Her gaze returned to Miles. "We are taking him with us, of course." Miles marveled at how she stated this as though it was a simple fact rather than an impossible feat. Still he gestured for her to continue. "Anyway, it was a new town where no one knew who we were. We were just a new family that had moved there. It felt…good. It felt right." She pushed gently and Miles willing laid back down so she could stretch out on top of him.

"Is that your plan?" he asked softly, playing with her hair. "To move out to a farm after we save Danny?"

"Or we could move to a bigger sort of town," Charlie murmured, pressing her cheek to his warm chest. "Whichever you prefer. But we have to take Danny. Someone has to keep him safe."

"You're making big plans for a time we don't even know is coming," Miles pointed out.

Charlie shot up. "You are going to help me save Danny, right? You promised."

"And I'm a man of my word," Miles agreed gently.

"You can't leave me," Charlie insisted. "Everyone leaves. You said you wouldn't. Over Maggie's body, you told me you weren't going anywhere."

"Easy, Charlie, easy," he coaxed. He thought how odd it was that he had used those very words their first time together. Miles pulled her back into his arms and stroked her hair to calm her down. "Do you remember what I told you when we started this?"

"You said all you wanted was my loyalty," Charlie murmured. "I told you that you'd had it since Chicago."

Miles nodded even though she couldn't really see it. "And I reward loyalty with loyalty. You've been loyal to me, so I'll be loyal to you. That means no leaving. But you have to remember the position we're in. It's best right now to think of what's right in front of us instead of what's years away."

"You really won't leave?" Charlie asked raising herself up just a little.

"You'd have to get a crowbar to pry me away," Mile promised before kissing her.

"We've got a little bit before the others wake up," Charlie whispered once she pulled away.

"Let's not waste it," Mile agreed, slipping his hands under her shirt. They both froze at the sound of movement from Nora's sleeping spot. Their wide gazes shot to each other as the noises grew louder. "Clothes," Miles stated.

Charlie nodded swiftly and scrambled out of Miles' shirt. Then she was diving for her own clothes faster than a rabbit with hounds at its heels. She had just finished tugging on her own shirt when Nora appeared in the clearing. "Morning," she greeted.

"Morning," Miles nodded as he pulled his own shirt on.

"Did you tend the fire?" she asked.

Miles shook his head. "Just woke up, actually."

"I did," Charlie called, appearing from the trees. "I was just washing my face in the stream before getting breakfast ready."

"Okay," Nora nodded. "Do you want some help?"

"Sure."

Nora turned to Miles. "Why don't you get us some more wood?"

"Right, no problem," Miles agreed, getting up. He paused to stretch out and caught the secret smile that Charlie reserved solely for him. He gave her a quick wink in return. "Don't burn the forest down," he advised them, patting Charlie's shoulder. Miles let his hand trail down her arm before gently brushing her hand as he passed. This was going to be a long trek and the little touches would have to sustain them until nightfall. So he did his best to drag them out as long as possible. Charlie's shudder was well worth the odd look from Nora.

"Just cold," he heard her tell Nora as he headed out of camp. Miles wasn't sure if he should be this proud that he was turning Charlie into such an accomplished liar. But there was time to think about that later. Now he'd rather think about what he was going to do to make Charlie shudder come nightfall.


End file.
